Graduate Certificate in Financial Management and Analysis

This graduate certificate in financial management and analysis will provide individuals with professional experience or an academic background in financial management or financial analysis with an opportunity to increase their professional competencies and marketability.

The certificate program is designed for those graduate students who:

are interested in mid-level and executive-level positions and seek to strengthen their knowledge of current business practices and theories

wish to maintain currency of knowledge as they prepare for professional certification exams, such as the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA exam).

have limited experience in their professional fields and wish to explore career possibilities in financial management and analysis.

Financial managers, as well as financial or business analysts, work in a broad variety of industries and are responsible for executing effective decisions with the objective to maximize a company’s financial condition and options. The certificate program will provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary to compete in an increasingly challenging business environment.

Program Design

Courses are taught online and students may begin the certificate program in the fall, spring or summer terms.

Program Prerequisites

Acceptance into the certificate program requires a foundational level of knowledge and/or experience in financial management and quantitative analysis. Applicant transcripts will be reviewed for relevant course work to determine eligibility prior to admission.

Courses are taught online and students may begin this 12-credit certificate in the fall, spring or summer terms.

Required Courses and Suggested Sequence

Financial Management (3 credits)

This course provides fundamental concepts and tools necessary for financial management. Financial managers are required to make decisions with regard to the choices available to their firms, particularly how to allocate scarce resources over time and within an uncertain environment. Decisions need to be effective in optimizing the firm's objectives.

The course addresses three main areas. First, it focuses on how firms assess their performance over time and against an industry benchmark. Secondly, it reviews the ways companies are organized and how they deal with financial markets. This includes the notion of the time value of money, ways of identifying and assessing risk and return, valuing bonds and securities, firm's cost of capital, basis of capital budgeting, effects of cash flows and associated risks and capital structure formation, concepts and theories. Thirdly, the course addresses the diagnostics of working capital, financial planning and forecasting techniques, as well as the financial management of multinational corporations.

Quantitative Methods in Finance (3 credits)

The purpose of this course is to expose students to state-of-the-art data analysis techniques with an emphasis on a specific domain of application: finance. Students are expected to have an understanding of basic statistics, since concepts such as random variables, expectation, correlation and statistical inference (estimation, hypothesis testing and confidence intervals) are fundamental to the analyses addressed in the course. It is also expected that students will have a basic understanding of linear algebra. The course relies on real financial data and uses spreadsheets and statistical softwares to cover a range of topics, including exploratory data analysis techniques, simulations and regression analysis methods, with a strong emphasis on their application.

Investment Analysis (3 credits)

This course starts with coverage of the financial environment in which the main financial market participants, as well as the types of securities traded in those markets, are examined. Then, it proceeds to the core content of the modern portfolio theory, in which the notions of risk-return tradeoff, risk preferences and resources’ allocation, portfolio optimization and its implications for the equilibrium structure are investigated. The course also addresses behavioral-related issues such as the efficient market hypothesis and its rationale and supporting evidences and the behavioral critique of market rationality. After covering equity securities and derivative securities, the course concludes with several topics important for portfolio managers, including performance evaluation, international diversification, as well as hedge funds.

Note: Accounting and Finance and Quantitative Methods in Finance are prerequisites for taking this course.

Strategies of Financial Management (3 credits)

The learning objective of this course is to build on the foundations developed earlier in the prerequisite Accounting and Finance course and to integrate the best practices and strategies in the world of corporate finance. Through the analytical use of financial case studies, this course seeks to develop a deeper understanding among students by engaging them with the application of financial models to real-world problems. The pertinent financial topics will include long-term investment and financing decisions, leverage and optimal capital structure decisions, dividend policy, and working capital management, as well as some advanced topics, which include initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, firm valuation, risk management and hedging. Student’s grasp and learning will be enhanced through a structured financial analysis of business cases involving problem identification, scanning the business environment and selection of a financially optimal solution among available options, inculcating vital skills towards professional performance and future career development.

Note: Financial Management, Quantitative Methods in Finance, and Investment Analysis must precede this enrollment in this course.

Admission and Advisement

Certificate students must follow the course sequence or request permission to deviate from this sequence. Advising will be provided by the certificate program coordinator, Dr. Shishir Singh. Advanced certificates may be incorporated into a related master's degree for those meeting the program admission requirements.